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Anthony P. Shafer's Sleuth

The Northern School of Art
Scenic construction · Set Dresser 
September- January 2023
Designer
To pitch my concept I presented multiple renders of a 3D digital colour model I created in Blender. My concept had a raised 1.2 meter podium and a revolving fireplace that reveals a laughing sailor. These design choices were to reflect antagonists Andrew Wyke's performative nature, and boastful self. The revolving fireplace would sit on a round base attached to a motor, the base would sit on top of ball bearings to reduce friction and help the set rotate. I designed the pair of bookcases and pillar desk using Adobe Illustrator, these are inspired by gothic architect Pugin's style. The furniture is decorated with quatrefoils which are seen throughout the set in the ceiling molding, fireplace and stained glass window. 
Scenic Construction
I used a miter guide, junior hack saw, and hammer to frame each face of the bookcases and desk in wooden trim, these were nailed on using panel pins.
To make the gothic lace, seen on the pair of bookcases and desk, I drew the design in actual size using Adobe Illustrator. Then I used a laser cutter to cut the gothic lattice from sheets of 3mm ply wood and mount board. Where possible I rearranged the lattice to cut as many pieces of lace from the sheets of material as I could, to remain environmentally and economically conscious. I then lead a team adhering the lattice onto the furniture, when the glue was dry I helped prime, paint, and dark wash the furniture. 
I helped apply some of the laser cut wall paneling to the flats, using wood glue, panel pins, and a staple gun. I had a hand in painting all of the wood work, including the vac-from ceiling molding, and both ceilings under the fireplace and stained glass window.
Set Dresser
I sourced all of the board games seen in the set from local charity stores who donated the games as a good will gesture. The majority of books seen on the bookcases I also sourced, and were donated by the same store. These were modern fiction books, when I removed the dust cover from these books, the traditional pain hardback style matched the aesthetic of the set and made easy set dressing. Some of the books had picture hard backs under the dust cover, to amend this I used Adobe Photoshop to create new graphics of fictional books, which I printed and used to cover the old photo hardbacks. I also, helped hang various photo frames and replace the original photos in these with more relevant graphics.
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